


so long as you come home at the end of the day

by Marianne_Dashwood



Series: the hope that you provide [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Achievement Hunter Kings, Alternate Universe - Minecraft, Alternate Universe - kingdoms, Anxiety, F/M, Gen, Mentions of a Panic Attack, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Suicidal Indentation, Post-Betrayal, Revolution, they/them Lindsay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:14:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28770669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marianne_Dashwood/pseuds/Marianne_Dashwood
Summary: Michael reasesses his view of the world after his exile, and confronts the person who he thought would never betray him.
Relationships: Can be read as platonic or romantic up to u, Gavin Free & Michael Jones, Lindsay Tuggey Jones/Michael Jones
Series: the hope that you provide [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2105376
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	so long as you come home at the end of the day

**Author's Note:**

> and i'm back. Procrastination central!
> 
> I love writing in Michael's POV, there is the same amount of swearing as my own! Also yes I'm aware i keep using hamilton lyrics, i know it's not 2015 anymore but again. On brand for a series inspired by fucking hamilton minecraft roleplay.

Michael wakes with his legs aching. It is expected, considering his and Lindsay’s rather frantic run from the place that had once been their home. It was a surprise to him, though, that his chest was aching as well. For a moment, he was concerned that there was something wrong, that running had entirely fucked up his chest. 

Then he remembers exactly where he was and why he was there. Memories flashed in front of his eyes; blond hair, wide grin, mischief in every line of his face, the look in his eyes when he knows that he’s pushed Michael far enough to get that note of fond exasperation in his voice. Then, all that he can remember is the cold look in Gavin’s eyes, the flat tone of his voice and instead of standing at Michael’s side, he floated behind the imposing shadow of the tyrannical king, overshadowed, eclipsed as the mad man grinned and ordered his men to train arrows on the couple. 

“Michael?” Lindsay’s voice cuts through the noise in his mind, and their warm hands are on his arms, his shoulder, his cheek. He becomes aware that his vision has become tinged with red, “Michael, can you breathe for me?”

Oh yeah. He’s hyperventilating. He very deliberately copies Lindsay’s exaggerated breathing, and the colour in his vision fades as he keeps his eyes on Lindsay’s concerned expression, their purple-pink hair, calming and constant. 

“I’m okay,” He says, finally. Lindsay is the only one he would let see him like this. Well. The only one right now, “I’m okay, Linds, I was just thinking, is all.”

“Don’t do that,” Lindsay responds automatically, the hint of a joke in their tone, but their expression is far more serious than he would ever expect, “You’ll hurt yourself.”

Michael nods, and Lindsay kisses him on the top of the head as they stand, heading out of the small, closed off cave which is their bedroom for the time being. 

“I’ve been unpacking,” They say, and sure enough, there’s a chest in the corner and their bags are leaning at the end of the bed. Their swords are resting on the wall opposite, “This… this fell out of your bag. I didn’t know if you still wanted it.”

Michael looks down to see Lindsay place something bright and light in his hand. The frayed edges of a golden ribbon, once tightly wrapped around the handle to Michael’s sword. Michael’s hand tightens around it and the urge to throw, to rip and tear and to destroy gets louder. Lindsay squeezes his hand, and Micheal forces himself to open his fist and actually look at the ribbon, at the reminder of the life he once had, at the friend he once had. 

He needed to accept that either, Gavin as he once knew him was entirely gone, or, perhaps worse of all, his friend had never really been his friend to begin with. He stares down at the ribbon, lying flat and limp and inoffensive in his palm. 

His eyes narrow, and he slowly turns it over. 

“Lindsay,” He says, calmly, too calmly, “Get Geoff.”

* * *

“I don’t like this,” Michael says.

“I know, Michael.”

“It could be a trap,”

“I  _ know _ , Michael,” Geoff says, frustration in his voice and tension in his shoulders. The faint ink lines on the ribbon, staining Michael’s fingers as he ran his hands over the words, was still clutched in his hand. 

_ The bad news tree. Dusk.  _

The implication is that it was from Gavin. Normally, Michael wouldn’t even think twice. But that was before the betrayal, before his best friend let a tyrant train an arrow at his back. 

Michael hates not trusting Gavin. It broils up in his stomach, burning away at the very foundation on which he stands. It’s a world where everything is upside down; the sky is falling, pigs fly and Gavin can’t be trusted. 

The sun is falling though the leaves of the trees around them, illuminating the rough-hewn sign that, despite the years, still read “ _ bad news _ ”. The ghost of a laugh echoes through the trees;  _ this tree has bad news written all over it.  _

It makes Michael’s chest hurt again. He doesn’t have much time to think about it, not when the woodland rustles with the tell-tale sounds of footsteps and Gavin steps out of the green of the leaves and the brown of the trees. 

His eyes light up when he sees Michael, going from a dullness that isn’t like him at all to a shade of his former self; still dull, still tired, but somehow, more Gavin than Micheal had seen in weeks. 

Then Michael remembers exactly where he saw Gavin before, and the rage fills him before he can contain it. 

The next thing he knows, his arm is pressed to Gavin’s throat, holding him up against a tree, and Gavin’s eyes are bulging in fear and panic, his breath coming in wheezing gasps as his feet kick under him to try and find solid ground. 

“You’re a traitor, you fucking asshole, you  _ traitor,  _ you betrayed us, you banished me, you banished  _ me _ , Gavin, you  _ rat _ , you fucking -”

He’s vaguely aware of Geoff gripping his arm, trying to pull him back, but his rage keeps him steady and strong, renders him far too angry to speak. 

Gavin chokes, his mouth trying to form Michael’s name with no breath left in his lungs, and he scrabbles at Michael’s arm. His gaze doesn’t leave Michael’s face. It’s that expression that finally, finally makes Michael relent. Gav is scared, but that’s surface level, that’s normal when someone might kill you. What wasn’t was the acceptance in Gavin’s eyes. He wasn’t pleading with Michael for his life. 

When Michael dropped him, part of him didn’t want to give Gavin anything he wanted, traitor as he was. The other part wanted to chase that look out of Gavin’s eyes forever. 

He wants to scream, wants to rage and let the accusations tumble out of his mouth. Instead, he stumbles back, watching as Gavin raises a hand to his throat and coughs to try and get some air back into his lungs. 

All that comes out of Michael’s mouth is a choked, “ _ Why?” _

Gavin lifts his head, and what he says strikes a bolt of ice into Michael’s stomach, “He was going to  _ kill  _ you.”

When Michael stares blankly at him, and Geoff stiffens next to him, he continues, as if afraid that someone else is going to choke him out and boy, doesn’t that make Michael feel like a total asshole. 

“He knew you were the ones that lit his stores of fire and stole all his food. He knew you were the ones that took his redstone; set his latest project back by weeks, and he was  _ furious _ , Michael, he knew exactly how to hurt you, he had a plan to capture Lindsay and he was going to make you  _ watch them die _ .”

“That fucking piece of shit,” Geoff says next to him, able to atriculate Michael’s shock a lot better than he can right now, too wrapped up in the horror of just the possibility of Lindsay’s death. 

“I had to persuade him that banishment was worse, Michael, I told him that it would destroy you, being exiled from Achievement City, thinking I had betrayed you, I had to let him think you hated me, I had to let you think that I hated you, or he would have  _ killed you _ .”

To the horror of both Geoff and Michael, tears began to well up in Gavin’s eyes, “It was all I could do to protect you, Michael. I’m so  _ sorry _ . And I know you can’t just trust me now, not after everything that’s happened, but I want to help, I want to bring him down.”

He finally meets Michael’s eyes and tears spill down his cheeks, as Michael steps forward, an infuriated look on his face. 

“You stupid fuck,” Michael says, and before Gavin can say anything else, and surprising them both, pulls Gavin into a tight hug, and it only takes a moment before Geoff is there too, exasperation in his voice even though it’s clear he too is about to cry.

“Why didn’t you _ tell us _ ?” He asks, and Michael hopes he answers the question, because even with the fizzling, bubbling relief in his chest, there is still a stone in his stomach; why didn’t Gavin trust him?

“Michael, you’re a terrible actor, Michael,” Gavin says, wiping his eyes on Michael’s shirt, “He has to believe I’m on his side. Or I’ll be a pretty shit spy.”

“Wait, a spy?” Michael says, pulling away, “Gavin, you can’t stay there!”

“I have too. He has Matt, so Jeremy can’t do anything overtly, not like me. He already has his eye on Trevor and Alfredo, he’s not gonna let them anywhere close to his plans. I’m the only one; he already thinks I betrayed you. He doesn’t trust me, but he doesn’t… not trust me.”

“Good to know you still don’t make any fucking sense,” Michael says, “What are you gonna do if you’re found out?”

“I’ll talk my way out of it, what do you think?”

“Talk your way out of it, what the fuck Gavin, you couldn’t talk your way out of a paper bag,”

“I’ve been doing alright, haven’t I?”

“You made us think you were all evil and shit-”

“Boys,” Geoff says, and his tone of voice makes their bickering stop immediately; it’s like being back in the Kingdom Wars, when Geoff was their general and they were carving out pieces of the land, huge swathes of potential covered in bandits and mobs, “I’m glad you’re ready to kiss and make up, but we don’t really have time for it. Gavin will need to get back to Achievement City soon, right?”

Gavin nods, looking forlorn. 

“Wait, Geoff, we aren’t really going to let him-”

“It’s my choice, Michael,” Gavin says quietly, “I want to do this.”

Michael wants to stop him. His emotions are a raging storm in his head and it hurts, to be twisted up like this, to have to hop skip and jump between rage and betrayal, relief and overwhelming concern. He needs Lindsay and he wishes that they had come with them; chaos they were, but they were also able to calm the storms and iron out the messes in Michael’s head and they would absolutely know what to say to Gavin to get him to stay. 

“Okay,” Michael says, and he hates it, he hates that he’s going to be letting Gavin walk back into the den of lions, desperately praying that he walks back out again, “Okay. You better not be killed in there, or I’ll kill you myself,”

Gavin breaks out a weak smile, and a small spot of sunshine, the last rays of the dusk, shines in Michael’s heart, “I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

For a moment, Michael thinks that they’re going to be okay. That they might even win. 

Then Geoff begins to talk about tunnels and contingency plans and the worst case scenario, and Michael wishes, desperately, that it would be as simple as it used to be, and before Geoff and Gavin could activate their plan, he could put a sword through the Tyrant King’s chest. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi over at @MJDashwood on twitter or marianne-dash-wood.tumblr.com :D


End file.
